My Weekend

My weekend was full.  

Full of happy mail and time spent with an old friend. 

 Full of laundry and cleaning cat boxes.  

Full of spending time with my hubby and hanging out in my sewing room. 

 How about you?  Was your weekend full?

First up happy mail.  I have the BEST friends!  

My friend, Vicky sent me this adorable stationary and post it note package.

My friend Judy in Michigan sent me one long strip of the 1.5" wide pieces that I plan on using for my gigantic strip quilt.  

You can see what she did and if anyone else is interested in helping me out, I would be thrilled!  

It introduces variety into my quilt that I don't get from using just my own pieces.

Thanks Judy!!!

I also won a giveaway on Instagram and got some Aurifil thread.  SWEET!!!

I am in a Kitten mini quilt swap and 

I had to work furiously on getting my mini quilt put together and quilted. 

 I am not sure my partner reads my blog but just in case, I can't show it here.

  I was pretty proud of the adorable cat face I quilted into the negative space though.

I have picked up a few things for "extras" and one of my favorite things is this orange kitty cookie.

I also had some help with all the quilting. 

 This is the view from me looking over the top of my machine.

And my view as I was trying to sew.  I keep having to push her out the backside!

Apparently I forgot to mention my weekend was also full of a CAT!

I did manage to get my entire swap quilt all quilted.  

Next up is to trim and bind it.  

Then on to making an extra to send with it (a requirement). 

 I am trying to decide between a pincushion or a pouch.

  I finally found a pouch pattern that looks like I could make it so I may have to go for it. 

Stay tuned to see if I attempt it!  

~XOP~

Will I Make You What??

This was my question last night when my beautiful daughter brought over her pea hen, Beep.  

The request that prompted that question?  

"Hey mom, will you make Beep a chicken diaper?"  

She had used an online place to purchase previous chicken diapers from for her other pea fowl that lived in the house but Beep is a female and a little smaller.  

The online place is no longer making and selling chicken diapers hence the request.

  *sigh*

 The things we do for our kids, eh?

So while I tried to figure out how to go about making a new chicken diaper, Beep and her owner were hanging out in my sewing room last night.

She will fly right on to your arm too.

I needed to get that diaper made quickly as I didn't want her leaving her calling card in my room.

All that being said, here is the finished "chicken diaper".  You put a resealable, plastic bag inside.

Here is Beep modeling her new garment.  

I thought we should have used something more flashy for fabric.  

My daughter assured me it needed to be brown so as to blend in.  

Anything else would not be dignified. 

 (you do know your bird is wearing a diaper, right??)

Who knew I would be spending my night creating a chicken diaper!

We are up to our eyeballs in canning, but I had to beg off helping to make this.

Hubby put up ~20 quarts of tomatoes yesterday all by himself.

He still needs to can the corn and the beets.  

I have to trim a quilt and sew on the binding.

I am hoping to do that when I get home and maybe go to quilting tonight.

I may get pressed into canning service.  

It seems unfair to expect him to do all the work alone.

We shall see.

So what do you think?

New business venture?

LOL

Have a great day!

~XOP~

Weekend Doings

We had a crazy weekend!  It began on Friday when our daughter came in to town from NC.  

We drove her to Gross Pointe to go to a bachelorette party.  

We dropped her off and drove home.  

LOTS of cleaning up from the work the contractor did while at my house.  

Good news is that I got a ceiling light/fan for in my sewing room now!!  

Bad news?  

I can't put my closet back together again until the ceiling light/fan is done in the other bedroom.  Access is through my closet ceiling.  Here is my new light!

Saturday found us at the farm.  We were going to help dig post holes for the bird pen expansion.  

And by we I mean my daughter, SIL and husband, LOL. 

 I was relegated to the basement to go through boxes left there from my dad's house. 

 It was so cold in the basement though that I came up periodically to get warm. 

 I would wander outside and play with the birds, take a few pictures and then back into the basement.  I was paying with Jocelyn and thought you might like to hear her voice.  

We hatched her from an egg when my DD lived at our house.

We rented a post hole digger 

(thank goodness, as hubby is not getting any younger!)

Now you see it...

Now you don't!!  Every time they fired it up the two male peacocks would start calling.

I managed to get a video of Blu when he was calling.  

The slight "echo" you hear is actually Octavain II who would begin slightly after Blu.

These are the posts we got planted (maybe with enough attention they will grow into a bird pen!)

Sunday we had to drive back to Detroit and pick up our other daughter after her partying weekend and drive her to the airport.  

We stopped off for lunch with her and then took her to the airport. 

 We got home and I fled upstairs to my sewing room.  

I really had no business working on anything but the "have to" list but of course I did something new.  I did work on the have to  list too though.  

I am hoping to finish up the market quilt soon and then we can have a QAL if you like.

Being around the birds inspired me to try this little paper pieced pattern I found online. 

 I have a friend that is a little down and so thought she might like this as a pin cushion.  

I have printed out enough to make 3 more that I think I will make a little mini quilt for her. 

 Just not right now.  

The block is about 4" square.

How was your weekend?

~XOP~

The Weekend

How was your weekend?  Mine was pretty fantastic! 

 On Saturday I got to watch my Spartans beat Michigan!  Yeah, that NEVER gets old, ever! 

 I received some awesome mail too. 

 A very good friend of mine is helping me complete Hocuspocusville (HPV not the virus), by Crabapple Hill.  She has exquisite hand work!  Wanna see?  I need to press it but isn't it fabulous?!  Thank you so much dear friend!

I was sent out to do some shopping.  They should know better then to send me out to shop!  

"Pick up a few things for me will you?" he said as he left to finish the peacock pen.  

Sure but don't blame me if other stuff follows me home!

How could I resist this amazing peacock door mat for Long Feather Lane?  Obviously I couldn't!

Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshalls, and Michaels, then on to the Salvation Army thrift shop.  

Lookie at what I scored!  

Shelby wanted one of these for the hot cider for her party on Friday, so of course I had to stop and see if I could find one.  

Luckily for me they happened to have one!  As you can see it is in the cart!

I did manage to work on this little quilt that I still can only show you sneak peeks of, 

but it is ready for gifting!  Hallie approved too!

I worked some on cleaning, laundry and such too.  

I did get my crayon challenge quilt cut out and some of it sewn too.  

More about that later.  

I just got a call and we are closing on my dad's house on Wednesday. 

 It feels good and also a little odd.  This is the house I grew up in. 

 My parents built it and we moved in when I was 5years old. 

 It is kind of bittersweet to be selling it but also a HUGE relief!  

It was the last part of "all things dad" that I needed to do to close the chapter on that part of my life.  No more being anyone's daughter. 

 It is a milestone I am sad to see come. 

 I miss my dad.

Today also marks the 2 year anniversary of Jack's passing.

  I think you have one pet in your lifetime that you have a very special bond with 

and for me that was Jack.  

I still miss him every single day. 

 It hurts less, but there is still an empty spot in my heart.  

RIP dad and Jack.  Maybe you are keeping each other company?  I hope so!

~XOP~

IKEA Goodness and Scrappy Trip

It was a great weekend over here! 

 I have a lot to share but will break it up into a few posts. 

 My hubby and I put my IKEA cubbies together on Saturday. 

 I pulled a muscle in my back this week so I have not been able to do a lot of moving or

 packing up Christmas (still). 

 I managed to snap a pic of him assembling the bigger unit.

Here are the units all assembled. 

 I did take the dragons down and that shelf too. 

 That's where my TV will be going.

I ran over to Cori's and picked up some stuff that I ordered too. 

 She ave me the cutest little silver bunny and a gift certificate for my Christmas present.

I love that girl!

I don't know if it was just me but I had no idea that there were words on The Proberbial Quilt pattern!

I guess it makes sense but I just thought it was cut up stuff.

I also bought some bias bars. 

I need to make some bias strips for a quilt, for an auction that I had committed to.  

The auction was put on by my daughter and some o her friends to raise money for Wolf Haven via the Teen Wolf Sterek fandom. 

I bought some panels to use to make the quilt. 

 As I was in my *new sewing room* cutting the panels apart and making the squares all the same size, I laid it out on the floor. 

 Hmmmm.  

How to put this together. 

 I laid it out like this and then it hit me...BAM!!! 

 I will keep the wolves like this and copy them on the right.  

That leaves a whole in the middle so here's where my brilliant idea comes in...

The fandom is Sterek.

 The 2 characters people in this group are shipping are Stiles and Derek. 

 Derek has a triskelion tattoo on his back. 

 I can use the bias bars to make a triskelion for the center block!!!

Cool right?? 

 I sure hope I can pull that off!! 

 Yeah, embrace your fears baby!!!

Then, and I totally blame Jeannette, 

I made a scrappy trip around the world block.  

She wanted me to cut a 2.5" strip from every piece of fabric I was putting away.

That would have taken way too long!

 I wanted to try the block and see if I even liked making it too before I committed to an entire quilt.  

It was fun to make up this block. 

 Now I have to decide if I want to make it all scrappy or use the fabrics from this line. 

 Peacock with Alison Jane Smith.  

I bought quite a bit of this and along with a few solid prints this would make a great scrappy trip.

So hubby brought up some tubs of fabric and I put those away, unpacked my closet and now I see two more bins waiting for me now too.

I went upstairs to my sewing room around 1:30 and when I looked up it was 5:30!!

OMG I am so in love with having my own space.

I do need an ironing space upstairs though. 

Running up and down the stairs kind of sucked.

Any suggestions for a small ironing space?

I will be having some fabric and other things up for sale on my blog tomorrow.

If you are interested in anything please email me!

Have a great night!

Back to work for me tomorrow, UGH. 

I just want to keep playing in my new space.

~XOP~